“Playing With God: Religion and Modern Sport,” by William J. Baker. Harvard

University Press

(Cambridge, Mass., 2007). 311 pp., $29.95.

“Faith & Fitness: Diet and Exercise for a Better World,” by Tom P. Hafer. Augsburg Books (Minneapolis, 2007). 143 pp., $14.99.

In the United States, the connections between religion and organized sports are, according to author William J. Baker, both complex and uneasy. Yet, at the same time, there is no doubt that the two are well nigh inseparable in the American mind.

“Religion and sport especially are joined, at the altar of commercial interest,” Baker writes in “Playing With God: Religion and Modern Sport.” “As sports promoters seek publicity and lively attendance at their events, and as churches seek wholesome activities and a podium for their message, their marriage seems made in heaven.”

While evangelical churches in recent years introduced “Faith Nights” at minor league baseball games – “featuring various combinations of gospel pop music, handouts of Bibles and bobble-head biblical figures, colorful Veggie Tales cartoon characters, and inspirational testimonies from local sports heroes” – clearly this is but one of the more recent manifestations of how religion and sports often go hand in hand. What do most Americans think of when they hear “Notre Dame”? And why is basketball nothing short of huge on the campuses of more than a few Catholic universities?

Allah Included

Author Baker takes the reader on a fascinating and informative trek through the history of the intimacy between religion and sports in America, and he even includes a chapter on Athletes for Allah. “The long arc of modern sport’s interaction with religion can best be viewed as a dance,” Baker concludes, “in which the terms of engagement have changed over time.” But never has the dance been anything but popular.

Tom Hafer, author of “Faith & Fitness: Diet and Exercise for a Better World,” is a registered physical therapist and certified athletic trainer who also holds a master’s degree in religion from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. In this book, Hafer prods the reader to think of physical fitness and diet in more holistic terms, indeed, in the context of one’s faith relationship with God.

He declares that his book “should convince you that the rabbit trails we chase to improve our looks, our wealth and our position all distract us from the faith to provide us with the fulfilling life of a servant. ... Together we can respond to God’s call to be good stewards of our own health, our neighbors’ health and the health of our planet.”

Catholic readers should not be surprised, however, to discover in Hafer’s book a classical Protestant outlook that he himself may not have been entirely aware of. He seems to take for granted that human nature is pretty darn seriously corrupt, and this requires us to do battle with it – here in terms related to nutrition and exercise.

Meaning of Wholeness

“When we consider our desire for better health or weight loss,” Hafer writes, “let us clear our minds of old ideas and struggles, start at the cross of Jesus – hungry, thirsty, open and broken – and go from there.”

“It is only by God’s grace that we are made whole,” Hafer concludes – loudly echoing classical Lutheran theology. At the same time, his book admirably brings a global perspective to his discussion: “When we are disciplined with our overabundance while concerning ourselves with the poor, a redistribution of resources occurs throughout our global community. ... In this new paradigm shift, wellness is no longer self-centered, but centered on Christ and the least of these, our neighbors.”

A Catholic author would have been more inclined to begin with the presupposition that human nature, while seriously flawed, is above all the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit and most basically good.

Keeping Hafer’s classical Protestant negative presupposition about human nature in mind, Catholic readers will all the same find in his book an abundance of wisdom and healthful advice on the topics of nutrition and exercise.

Finley is staff writer for the Inland Register, newspaper of the Diocese of Spokane, Wash., and the author of more than 30 books, most recently “The Rosary Handbook: A Guide for Newcomers, Old-Timers, and Those in Between,” published by Word Among Us Press.